22 January 2011

The days just seem to fly by at the moment. There's a lot of everyday things going on and like farmers all over France, we've loads of paperwork to do this month, then on exactly the date we predicted, the sheep started lambing.

I like it when they lamb early in the year because we have them all inside in the warmth and out of danger. When we let them lamb outdoors there are often mishaps when, for example a new mother abandons her new-born lamb in the field or a fox or badger takes a lamb.

There's not a lot to eat in the fields anyway and it's been bitterly cold and windy out there for the past few days.We've some good hay, mineral and vitamin licks and a ration of cereal for each new mum and being closer to them at the moment makes them less scared of us and easier to manage if there are birthing or feeding problems.

We have a lot more water harvested from the roof this year which the goats and sheep seem to prefer to tap water and we keep the storage close to the shed, in a warm area and so they're less likely to freeze, which cuts down a lot on the work of smashing ice and carrying kettles of hot water. The new mothers drink an amazing amount of water ! All in all it's easier and more comfortable for us and them and as we can hear what's going on in the shed from the house it's certainly more reassuring.

I'm excited because we've had a lamb from one of our Basco Béarnaise ewes. He's a strapping lad and huge despite the size of his sire - a small but obviously very capable Cameroon ram.

She's not a terribly good mother which is not a bad thing in some ways. It means we can feed the wee fella a bit ourselves and take some of her milk for tea and for making cheese and I'll feel a lot less guilty about the whole thing.

We've one lamb in the kitchen who we needed to warm up and feed quickly because his mother totally rejected her. The poor wee thing chose the worst spot ever to curl up in and got chilled and when we tried to get her to suck the colostrum from the ewe she was already too weak.

We milked off some colostrum and gave it to her gently in drops from a syringe and she licked and swallowed.

She finally got a bit more strength after she was warmed up and with a bit of help from our Dachshund Bonnie who is a real star and licks lamb's bottoms to stimulate them to pee and feed just like the ewe does. Thanks to Bonnie, the lamb's sucking reflex started working and she's now taking tiny amounts from a baby's bottle and is slowly walking around the kitchen this evening.

12 December 2010

This boy got beaten up by a band of roaming youngsters that I call the red bunch and as he was walking away with his head down I started taking photographs of him and he suddenly perked up and strode along proudly as though to show me that he was non the worse for his humiliation.

The culprits were a large group of young red cockerels who are now at sexual maturity and are a pain in the whotsit - not just because they're fighting with all the other young cocks but also they've started to gang up on the girls and the poor things have to walk the gauntlet before being allowed into the chicken shed to roost for the night.Anyone who has kept chickens will know what I mean - I almost feel like throwing something at them when they start their antics and the girls are becoming nervous and scatty and if this goes on any longer they'll go off the lay, their backs will lose their feathers and some of them may be tempted to sleep outside and risk an encounter with Mr Fox.

It's been a real joy all summer to see this year's chicks grow up. A high proportion of them are bright orange with a few blacks and a couple of pure whites. The garden has been brought alive by the flashing past of dozens of orange chicks running when they hear the feeder being filled up. But I counted the chickens this morning and there are fifty and an awful lot of them are young males. I'll try to find homes for the best cockerels - normally my neighbours are interested if they need to change their stock - but sadly, it's not worth feeding them all winter and the time has come to cull them and get them into the freezer.

25 October 2010

Now I know for some people this is no big deal but for me it's one the most exciting things that's happened for ages. (Apart from the roof but I'll talk about that another time.)

Anyone's who's ever visited here will have noticed that there's never ever anywhere to put things in our kitchen. Everything that arrives gets dumped on the table and before we eat, we've taken to simply pushing the mess over a bit to make the space to put a few plates. In the summer, space isn't a problem because we have three huge tables outside on the terrace but in the winter everything has to come inside.

I've been meaning to make a work top and somewhere to store pots and pans for ages but I've always got something else more important to do. Well-meaning friends try to persuade me to go out and bu something but I just can't do that. It's not even the money, we'd just never dream of just buying something - unless it's for the computers or something that neither Fabrice nor I can make ourselves.

I really do prefer things that have been home-made from recycled materials and we're fortunate to live in a rural area where people share our frugal ethics. Since we started building the house our neighbours have been wonderful - helping us to source materials and bringing anything they've got or they can get that they think we might be able to use.

Our tribal dumping ground in the photo here is an area where we stock materials. It now looks pretty organised but when we first started building it was piled high with masses of reclaimed materials which have now found pride of place in the house. Now we're looking for fittings for finishing the extension and this summer has been absolutely frenetic with 'phone calls and lorries arriving with old baths, wood, tiles, bottles, windows, sinks, stone, chicken-wire and anything else you can imagine. Some of it gets passed on to other people who we know are looking for things but a lot of it gets arranged in lots to be used for building or for making things for the garden.

We ask people to try not to bring polystyrene or plastic or broken bottles and over the years they're getting better at knowing what we need and what we might find useful and it's incredible how they often go out of their way to help us.

The conversations go something like this. "My son knows a place where they're pulling out a load of double glazed windows, there's nothing wrong with them, it's just that the electric shutters don't work any more. The guy said they'd be skipped on Friday, if we get there fast he'll let us have the lot for a fiver each." The logistics of how to get there fast with a van or someone's borrowed trailer are sorted out and off we go to collect the windows.(Merci Guy !)

To be honest if it weren't for all the things that people give us, our house would have been a lot more expensive to build and we'd have spent an awful lot of time in DIY shops - not to mention the fact that it would be boring to have to choose what we wanted all the time instead of just doing what we can with what we've got. Sometimes things do look a bit weird to begin with but the finished result is quirky and interesting and totally unique.

We've use almost all our old windows now for covering firewood, making cold frames, covering straw bales as temporary shelter for tender plants and we've used them for making our greenhouse and even as windows when they're good enough.

The new veranda is just second-hand windows we've been given and wood Fabrice cut from our land, topped by incredibly expensive hail-stone proof double layer plastic. We've got seven second-hand double-glazed PVC French windows which we'll use at the back of the house just to the right of these windows and on the east side of the extension. I don't really like plastic or PVC but we get a lot of storms here and I don't intend replacing anything in my lifetime. We'll paint the windows or do something to make them look OK and the fact that everything is recycled assuages my green conscience.

We've used all the stone that was easily accessible on our land, (Peak stone !) so we've asked neighbours to help us find more. They have come up trumps and sometimes even deliver it to us (Merci Christophe !) or we go and get it ourselves.

We dump all the stones and rubble in front of the house and when we've taken the best bits out of it, (Including some roots and bulbs which have become beautiful plants !) what's left makes a solid base for the roads we've been making for the past few years.

Anyway, getting back to the kitchen worktop. A few weeks ago I bit the bullet and bought a worktop in a shop. (I bought three because I'll need two more for the extension.) They've sat inside the front door doing nothing because we've been so busy.

We had a visitor here and after a week or so, he started to appreciate why we never had time to do anything about storage space in the kitchen, so he offered to make us something. On his next visit, he brought with him a couple of beautiful pieces of boxwood Buxus sempervirens which he used for the front legs of the table and of course, the rest of the bits he needed came from the dumping ground !

After he spent the day making it he had to go back to work at L'Ecocentre du Périgord, so I finished sanding it down and over the past week I've given it five coats of varnish and it's now dry and ready for use. Thanks Yohan, you really are a star !

22 October 2010

Pyke dragged me out this evening. He ran around the house, teasing and showing off and insisted that I go out with him. I was a bit busy but stopped what I was doing because when he does that there's usually something worth seeing, so I let him lead me to the end of the drive, then he stood there watching the sky. He's a funny dog.

He's a Border Collie from good working stock and we got him to work with the goats and sheep and he does help a bit but gets bored easily then runs off to chase swallows and butterflies. We've given up trying to get him to work properly.

In English that means, "The poet is someone who sees things differently, in a new light, amazed at things which are often ignored by other people."

I've never known a dog before who walks around sniffing flowers. The interesting thing is that his likes and dislikes are so similar to mine. Sweet smelling roses, Jasmine and Honeysuckle have a really positive effect on him and when he sniffs a flower he likes, he looks up at me, smiles and wags his tail.

We sat looking at the sky with the clouds moving slowly towards the west and as the sun crept over towards the horizon and the sky darkened we turned and walked towards the east where the wind was pushing and dividing the clouds into puffy balls and as it got stronger the little wind turbines suddenly started chugging into life. The wind got stronger and stronger and my little cardi suddenly felt very inadequate so I looked at Pyke and he looked at me then we went inside to the warm.

17 October 2010

I walk down this little path every day to open the chickens then through the vegetable garden and back up towards the house to open the geese and check the goats. Then I have a cup of tea.

I'll probably walk down this path four of five times in an average day but the morning stroll is the important one and starting the tour by this path has become a morning ritual. The path is crunchy underfoot with years of discarded mussel and oyster shells and in autumn it rustles with the sound of fallen sweet chestnut and oak leaves.

I've lingered a bit more than usual this week on the path - the colours are stunning and it's interesting to see the shape of the tree trunks emerging from the fallen greenery and the new growth of biennials like the Foxglove, Mullen and Evening primrose. Autumn is a lovely time of the year, especially when you're ready for winter.